East Haven High School - Pioneer Yearbook (East Haven, CT)

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(Following pages) A former cargo schooner in its second century on the water, the 102-foot schooner Pioneer put in to port at Oyster Point Marina, City Point last October. One of the many tall ships that participated in Operation Sail in New York Harbor on July 4, 1986,the Pioneer is a year older than the Statue of Liberty. The ship was launched in 1885 from a shipyard in Marcus Hook, Pa. It began its career carrying sand for foundries and blast furnaces in the Delaware Bay region. In 1966 Russell Grinnell, a shipyard owner in Gloucester, Mass., raised funds to restore the Pioneer, then a rotting hulk on a Massachusetts beach. Grinnell died in 1970, shortly after he had completed restoration of the Pioneer. His family, eager to see the ship preserved, donated it to the South Street Seaport, where it is used in sail training programs and chartered cruises.